Healthy Farms, Food and Communities Act

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The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) is proud to announce the 
publication of its recent policy document, The Healthy Farms, Food and 
Communities Act. This document outlines the core policy platform of the CFSC, 
as well as its broader support for policies in the anti-hunger and  
sustainable agriculture fields. 

Hard copies will be sent out to CFSC members and also to others by request. 
The full document is available as a PDF file on our website at 
www.foodsecurity.org.

We are actively seeking organizational endorsements of this platform. 
Endorsement forms are available on our website as well, and contained within 
the document. We hope that your group will be able to sign on. 

Below is the executive summary of the document. To request a hard copy or to 
indicate your endorsement, please contact: James Hong, Policy Associate at 
cfsc@foodsecurity.org, 310-822-5410

Regards,

Andy Fisher  
executive Director
CFS Coalition

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Healthy Farms, Food and Communities Act (HFFCA) renews and expands the 
policies and approaches first outlined in the Community Food Security 
Coalition’s 1995 Community Food Security Empowerment Act document. The HFFCA 
includes a legislative initiative to be incorporated into the 2002 Farm Bill, 
and a broader set of policy principles and legislation that we endorse. Both 
of these policy platforms—the Farm Bill initiative and an overarching policy 
approach create the basis for furthering the goals of healthy farms, healthy 
food, and, ultimately, healthy communities.

Farm Bill Summary
As part of the 2002 Farm Bill, we propose a five–part legislative initiative 
that expands on the Community Food Projects (CFP) program. Since the 
program’s inception, CFP grants have helped generate a number of creative and 
successful projects that have enabled communities to reduce hunger,  improve 
residents’ nutrition, and support family farmers. The proposals contained in 
this initiative represent a budget request of $70 million per year, a modest 
and reasonable investment considering the enormous pressures for alternative 
strategies and creativity in adapting the present food system to meet the 
needs of vulnerable populations such as low-income residents and struggling 
family farmers. The provisions include:

1] Reauthorizing and increasing mandatory annual funding to $7.5 million for 
the core Community Food Projects Program and provide an additional $2.5 
million for a new mini-grants component for smaller single focus projects 
such as community kitchens or garden projects ($10 million).

2] Incorporating a Planning Grant component to the Community Food Projects 
Program to fund program and business planning and community food assessments 
to guide successful project development ($5 million).

3] Establishing a Local Food Bonus Account to increase the purchase of 
locally or regionally produced food by institutions serving low and 
moderate-income households ($25 million).

4] Launching a USDA Healthy Farms, Healthy Kids Initiative to integrate a 
general policy to purchase locally with a Farm-to-School Seed Grant Fund and 
expansion of the current Small Farms/School Meals Program ($15 million).

5] Creating a Community Food Security Research, Training, and Education 
program to link and develop research programs to support community food 
security assessments, new model strategies and a new generation of scholars 
in this field ($5million).

The Community Food Security Coalition’s "Healthy Farms, Food, and 
Communities" legislative package for the 2002 Farm Bill provides one 
important route for beginning to develop a healthy food system. The task of 
restructuring the nation’s food and farm policies is massive, and one 
requiring broad and deep changes in a number of sectors. The CFSC is 
supportive of many of these efforts, as we see ourselves as part of a larger 
set of organizations and movements seeking to transform what has become an 
unjust,
undemocratic, and unsustainable food system. We support farm policies that 
provide farmers with a greater share of the food dollar, encourage 
conservation, reduce the monopoly power of agri-businesses, preserve 
farmland, and support the ability of minority farmers and farmworkers to earn 
a fair wage and stay on their land. We support nutrition policies that 
increase the minimum wage to a living wage, expand food stamps and the WIC 
program, improve the quality of meals through the Child Nutrition Programs, 
and build connections between low income faransit dependent, and that foster 
redevelopment of inner city communities rather than sprawl.  Federal policy 
changes, including those associated with the upcoming 2002 Farm Bill, can 
play a critical role in reversing decades of concentration in the food 
system, protracted community food insecurity,  including lack of access to 
fresh and nutritious food, decline of family farms and rural communities, and
environmental degradation.  To take back the food system for communities, 
farmers, and consumers, and create a more just, democratic, and sustainable 
food policy requires action at all levels—from Congress to neighborhoods. 
Change begins to happen when people are able to act in concert and identify 
the kinds of coalitions that can make
change possible.

 For the food system, the process for making change has begun. Join us!

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